Monday, November 24, 2014

You claim that you know everything that can be or that has to be known about life. Is there knowledge beyond what you claim to know about life?No, because the knowledge that concerns us is only what happens or can happen or be experienced as we journey through our lives. Therefore, to know about life fully is for all practical purposes to know about everything, including death.So, tell me something about life.Well, life is transitory, capricious and in what we call the universal scheme of things, absolutely futile.Is that all?Yes.So then, what are all these -- faith, ambition, achievement, yearning, lust, fulfillment, tenderness, joy, hurt, anger, despair...Transitory, capricious and futile.Any questions? Ask.

Thursday, November 06, 2014

"... If we all follow these few simple steps, together… we will make a noticeable difference in conserving energy and Saving our planet." (Bipasha Basu, on her blog, Save Our Planet - Together we can!)To President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton et al., at the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change:I have spent 50 years or more of my life on researching the subject of survival of our species, and possibly even our planet. All this while I was also searching for the origin of life and its meaning, and whether or not it is innately durable. In this note, however, I will spare you the main part of my research, and deal only with whether or not mankind can prevent its extinction, and, if not, can we at least delay it to gain some more time for rehabilitation, relocating, or whatever, outside of earth, which would doubtless have been altogether depraded, and not capable of supporting not only man, but all other living species. In 1965, at the invitation of the then USIS in Madras, I wrote an introduction on the compatibility and otherwise, between man and his environment, and the imperatives without which the chance of man's survival would definitely be lost. This was taken very seriously, used by scientists in India, published in Europe and America, and discussed widely. It is unfortunate, though, that to exist, to live day after day, we need props and hope. So, regardless of the unanimity of agreement that my views generated, there was always a wishful "But." "We can, we will, certainly do something." "We have prevailed, and we will prevail. We will find means, modifications in our lifestyle, technology; and if all this fails, we will begin to colonise outer space." "Certainly, we are not transient. We are forever." Etc. etc.Now, the point is, in the 1960s, given the population of that time, which was probably 6 billion, 2 billion too many for the resources of earth to support and provide for, today the population is 8 billion plus, and increasing. With or without the help of a Copenhagen World Meet, with Obama leading the western civilisation's diktat for lesser consumption by less-developed countries and people, simultaneously waging unwinnable wars which involve enormous consumption; the many and hackneyed sophisms that the conference generated, apart from producing enormous waste of resources on increased flights, and the accompanying madness of desperation to cling to a belief, however irrational.I can go on and on, and prove to you that even if the population was by some means decimated to half, and measures and regulations put in place for it to remain constant, the most the wounded and emptied, chemically altered Earth could do would be to extend our tenure. But it cannot now revive or regenerate from within itself to be what it was 5000 years ago, or even 500 years ago.To start with, the premise of reduction of population by half and maintaining it at that level itself is impossible, even with massive massacre, war, pestilence, and other modes of killings. So is the chance of maintaining the current level of population, when man is not only growing its species geometrically, but also puts in every effort to extend longevity of life, even to an age when it cannot serve any purpose, nor is it convenient for the survivor, while the burden on the depleted resources of our home planet that we call Earth increases and changes its natural balance and rhythm irreversibly.Taking the above-stated facts as given or inalienable, in absence of any provable argument coming from any part of the world, the United Nations, and all its and other such agencies included, can any sincere effort salvage anything, does it salvage anything even today? Will it salvage anything tomorrow, or the day after? Is anything being saved, protected, reimbursed, restored, within and out of our planet's environment? If not, then we have to stop kidding ourselves. We have to tell ourselves that we, and we alone, have consumed our home, our planet, and now are left with no alternative but to be consumed by whatever drove us to this folly that we have perversely called progress. I am not sure that you will even begin to read this mail, let alone read it fully and ruminate over it. I will be full of gratitude if only you will at least acknowledge it.Sincerely,Ramesh GandhiEnclosed: My Introduction to Environment and Man

Environment and Man

A supremely delicate balance in the atmospheric forces pervading the earth resulted in the creation of the living: plant and animal. Through centuries as these conditions changed, plant and animal alike responded by changing their behaviour patterns and supported this fascinatingly complex balance. That was the least that they could do, for those who did not, became obscure or perished.Man's appearance was a result of no more glorious a cause, nor were the means of his survival any different. However, gifted in addition with imagination and ambition he set out to ensure his survival not merely by responding to the cycles of nature but also by his ingenuity in improvising shelter, barricades and weaponry for his protection against its inclemencies.

Later this ability was to lead him to the inevitable desire to master the forces of his environment and in the process to come to ignore them. Nature could at best be predicted, but could not be made subservient to the sophistications of the civilization man created. In trying to meet the demands of his progress man slowly but unmistakably started disturbing the natural balance. The earth, water and the air which he had taken for granted as solely for his benefit and ravishment fulminated under his constant abuse. Especially in the last decade, his faith in his ability to govern these forces has gradually dwindled to the extent that he is almost convinced that nature cannot be governed, nor be made to adapt to man's needs. He increasingly realises that in the general scheme of things his environment came first and he later, and therefore, he was infinitely more ephemeral.

More than at any other time, he realises now that for survival he has not only to constantly adapt to the dictates of his environs but also not create conditions in which his atmosphere will refuse to support him. Environment which created him threatens to destroy him unless he restores the equilibrium, even at the cost of progress and his quest for knowledge.The question is, can he and how soon; and if he cannot, how soon the doom.

(The whole exercise of writing this is the result of the recently held Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, open to all, by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and therefore copies of the above have been sent to them with the hope that they will at least acknowledge, if not address and reply fully.)

Music, songs.Listening to the song, Itna na Mujhse Tu Pyaar Badha ... and coincidentally, at the same time seeing the lyrics on somebody's facebook post, inspired me to add my little bit:The tune of this song is taken from Mozart's 40th symphony, among his better known, produced when he was very ill, persecuted and tormented. Soon after, he died; but not before he wrote his 41st and last symphony, which has not been considered a significant work. But his last composition, the Requiem, is one of his cardinal works. Salil Choudhary, himself a vastly talented lyric writer, composer, producer and a multi-faceted, much-loved man, left a great legacy of his work, and an adoring family, all of whom also sing and write music, almost entirely derived from western classical and folk music. Choudhary wrote Itna Na Mujhse... for the film Chhaya, and used it twice, both on Sunil Dutt and Asha Parekh.

I am thankful to Reliance for giving me credit for something which I may have done circumstantially, and not for lofty beliefs and ideals. Those who came to know about this modest honour sought me out to congratulate, compliment, praise, and even to ask me what they could do towards the cause of saving our planet, with all that it involved, including halting climate change.I take the opportunity to say here that I do not believe that mankind is getting closer to a greener globe, and therefore saving itself, apart from most of the other creatures, who have not contributed to this environmental devastation, from perdition.Regardless of what one of us, or a group, or an entire country, or all of us, consciously NOW does, we cannot reverse the process of our earth's inability to support life as we know it. Each moment, each day, our despoliation increases. Each moment, each day, month, year, is inferior, more problematic, than the last; if not for complex scientific reasons, then simply because we are too many and growing, and all the resources have to be more plundered and exploited for us to reside, have walls and rooms, food, water, transport, and a relatively unpolluted environment.Whether or not trees are planted, whether or not the milk of human kindness flows with all the generosity it can summon, it is already too late. Things are so bad that the little or more that we do cannot compensate for the harm which we do in the same given time. Therefore, only the deficit is incremental, not the escape or the longevity of our survival.This is without prejudice to people, experts or novices, societies, social workers, reformers, environmentalists, ecologists, whose job, with or without belief, is to engage themselves in "good works" for improving living conditions and longevity, reducing pollution, disease; and attempting to make mankind, if not the world, a better place to live in and perpetuate.I have written separately on this subject of environment, and I firmly stand by it.